Joint Efforts
by Trapex
Summary: The All-Stars live out their day-to-day lives within the community.


The people in the room could hear the splash of the coffee coming into the white, glass cup. For those with hangovers from the night before, it was almost unbearable. They imagined back to when they were pixels hearing sounds of the developers' annoying voices sounding like nails scraping along a chalkboard.

"Keep it quiet." Mumbled one young man with pointy ears and an ottsel resting on a small, round table, passed out from his former drunkenness. This creature was apparently his companion, though many referred to him as a pet.

"Oh can it, kid. It's probably not your first hangover and it damn well won't be your last." A man with a clown mask over his face spoke this with an evil tone to it. He picked up his pure white cup with a pure black liquid in it and sat down at the same table. "Some party it was last night, huh?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Those guys just wouldn't stop playing. I swear my guy was drunk off his ass." The young man rubbed his temples.

"Look- Jak, is it? -it comes with the territory. You've fought before, haven't you?" He took a sip of his coffee, still hot straight from the warmer.

"Of course. I just have never fought against anyone that's just on an equal level as me."

"Trust me, you'll get used to it, young gun. You should've seen the hell we went through in the beta."

"Don't get me thinking about it. I don't like thinking."

Daxter suddenly slung up his arm straight in the air, pointing upwards with his index finger. "Bring it on Nariko, you bitch. I oughtta kick yer…ass…"

"Ain't it cute? The poor little fella is tuckered out." Sweet Tooth leaned back chuckling.

"He just drank too much is all."

"Hey, look at it this way. We have the next week off from work and can do whatever the hell we want."

"Oh yeah? I wouldn't want to go outside, though. Radec's been having flashbacks of his war days and has gone batshit crazy. He's lying on the rooftop right now with a sniper rifle." Jak got up to go and get himself a doughnut from an open box. "Dammit, they took all the custards!" He angrily picked up a jelly-filled one and sat back down.

"Don't worry. Radec goes off the deep end just about every other week. Once the maintenance staff get him in a straitjacket and in a room with the psychologist, he'll be just fine."

Jak shrugged, taking a bite of the puffy doughnut. He shook his head. "Bastards. Any idea who took the last one?"

Sweet Tooth stared at him with his coffee almost to his mouth, semi-lifting his mask to slip the cup in underneath to his lips. "Took the last what?"

"Custard doughnut. Everyone knew since day one that I had first dibs on them!"

"Hey, we're fighters. We don't whine about who took who's doughn-"

Jak grabbed him by the straps going across his chest. "Tell me who took my fucking doughnut."

Sweet Tooth gulped heavily. Not just because the coffee was very hot still either. "I thought I saw Nariko walk out of the room with it."

Jak let him go, letting him fall back in his chair. He quickly ran out of the room, just passing Nathan as he entered the room, and slammed into the room that read "Nariko" across the door. He then slammed the door shut.

"Jesus, mind telling me what the hell that was about?" Drake opened up the fridge and looked inside. "Why can't we even get decent food in a break room? This is ridiculous."

"Jak got bent all out of shape just for one lousy doughnut." Sweet Tooth straightened up his mask, getting it back square on his face. "Ah, much better."

"He's got a custard addiction, doesn't he?"

"It's as unhealthy a habit as smoking, I suppose." Sweet Tooth got up and walked over to the sink, dropping the cup in and starting to spray water onto it. He dumped a little bit of soap on the inside of the cup and started taking a scrubber to it.

"How does it feel doing chores?" Nathan said with his head still inside the fridge.

"Unbelievable. We have enough money to have a place rented for our stay and enough to pay for all these fancy stage effects that happen so consistently and we can't even afford a Goddamn dishwasher." Sweet Tooth looked down negatively at the cup, as if it were all the piece of glass's fault.

Nathan eventually gave up and just pulled out a beer, opening the cap on the edge of one of the counters. "Don't give the management too much credit. We still have to room with others."

"All except the women. Did you know that they're the only ones who get their own rooms? That's a bunch of horseshit."

"Well we can't complain. The good thing about that is that I got a room right next to Nariko. I hear ALL the sounds she makes." Nathan said with a smirk.

Sweet Tooth laughed, drying the dish he used to feed his caffeine need for the day. "Yeah, you're one of the lucky ones. I got roomed right next to the Princess and-"

"You don't need to say anymore. I think I got it." Nathan held up his hand as if it were a stop sign. Sweet Tooth had always been a good friend of Nathan Drake, believe it or not. Since day one of the signings to the roster, Nathan had problems making friends. He tried with Big Daddy, who came on as the same time as him. The creature didn't seem to want to talk behind the scuba gear and looked to be much more interested in taking care of this little girl that traveled with him just about everywhere. He didn't bother trying to speak to Fat Princess as she seemed more using her mouth to stuff cake in rather than to talk with. Radec became confused of the situation and when Nathan approached the former man of war he took out a knife and held it up to his neck, accusing him of betraying the platoon command that the two of them were in charge of (Radec kept on calling him Johnny, silly enough). That trade of events ended with him crying into Nathan's shirt, murmuring something about having to go and that he'll always be Nathan's friend (Nathan didn't find this convincing enough, however). When speaking to Parappa, he felt ridiculous trying to act street. Kratos was in the weight room, yelling out random things along the lines of the rest of the cast being weaklings, so out of respect, he didn't disturb him. Sly Cooper wouldn't come out of his room, for some reason. Then, when Nathan was just about to call it quits and just to wait on the rest of the rumored line-up to show up, Sweet Tooth showed up. The guy was at his ice cream truck, waxing and polishing the outside, when Nathan Drake came along. He admired the vehicle and the state it was in for an old truck. Sweet Tooth took much pride in his form of transport and they talked for hours on end. They exchanged names and shook hands in the end of all the talk.

Nathan put down his beer. "So what do you propose we do about this whole bunking situation? I would not rather be rooming with submarine boy. I feel like he's going to use that drill to kill me while I sleep for just being in the same room as that little girl."

"It's too early to be making demands, Nate. We could have our asses cut in a moment. Is that what you want? Some third-party franchise nobody taking your first-party spot?" Sweet Tooth leaned back on the counter.

Nathan pondered on the situation some more. Sweet Tooth came over to him and patted him on the shoulder. "Look, it's a tough job and we just have to get through it. As soon as more of a profit is made, I'm sure that we're going to get something better than these college dorms."

The rugged man let out a deep sigh. "Yeah, I guess your right buddy." He put on a smile and chugged the rest of his beer. "So we're off for two weeks, right?"

"Sure are. You got any plans?"

"Not yet. I was thinking about going to the strip joint down the street tonight. You wanna tag along?"

"What the hell. I'll see if any of the other boys want to come along."

"If you do, make sure that one of them isn't Kratos. I don't want him screaming something like 'Your mortal tits don't satisfy me!' or anything like that." Nathan said this in his best imitation, to which both of them started laughing instantly.

The orange ottsel got up drunkenly from off the table. "You boys going down to the strip? Alright, I'll go with ya." He yawned heavily. "C'mon, let's go to our room, Jak-" Daxter looked around the room, seeing no sign of his pointy-eared compatriot. "Uh, where is Jak?"

Sweet Tooth snickered. "He went to give Nariko a piece of his mind."

"And he did this without me?! Doesn't he know I want a slice of that action? I'm comin', Jak!" The ottsel charged out of the room and into the hallway, in which Jak was coming out wrapped in nothing but a towel from Nariko's room. The duo just stared at each other for a moment, Daxter slightly twitching and his mouth agape.

"Now Dax, I know what you're-"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"

* * *

**Trapex here with the start of a new story! That's right, it's a new one! I don't intend on this distracting me from Cellmates for all the people who read it and are a fan of it, but I just needed something to distract me from other pressures revolving around the stories and my life! So, here's a new one I hope you'll enjoy! Until next time, then!**


End file.
